


Super soldier reproduction

by PerplexinglyParadoxialPerson



Series: Theories and meta [7]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Genetics, Meta, Super Soldier Serum (Marvel), super soldier children, theory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:47:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26924599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerplexinglyParadoxialPerson/pseuds/PerplexinglyParadoxialPerson
Summary: A look at the likely scientific possibilities of super soldier reproduction
Series: Theories and meta [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1546192
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	Super soldier reproduction

**Author's Note:**

> I’m writing this, first to thank you all for 50 subscribers!!!!🎉🎉🎉🎉 thank you all so much, and I’m so glad that you enjoy my works so much!
> 
> Also, thanks to some of the people on the Avengers:deck of cards discord for encouraging me to write what I had planned since forever! (Also, please take part in the project! I’m only a cheerleader, but there are some wonderful works of art being made there! Find it on tumblr under the tag avengers:deck of cards)
> 
> I know I said that my next theory would be on super soldier dietary needs, but that one’s... taking a while. It will be coming, but not quite yet!

This theory will have a lot of speculation to it, as nothing about this is mentioned anywhere in canon, and is based mostly on speculation and the logic of genetics. 

First of all, I will make the assumption that the SSR, as well as Hydra, made an attempt to produce super soldiers using the sperm of the ones they had. It may seem weird, but once Erskine was dead, and all other samples of the serum gone, they would try to get the serum any way possible. With blood, they might have been able to make the serum, but they had no clue how long it would take. However, there a good chance that there would be willing volunteers to carry a super soldier baby, and that would be a potential way to get a super soldier with minimal effort, so I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t do it. It would take quite a while for it to be worth it, but minimal effort would be necessary on the scientists part, and after Steve “died”, they would likely to use any of samples they did have of Steve, if only not to waste them. They would also have more resources and time without the tight constraints of the war. 

The thing is, if this did work, super soldiers would be very common once Steve woke up, because of how desperately everyone wanted a super soldier, like how Hydra kept Bucky despite him being so much trouble with programming, and the chair, and him likely running away a few times, just because they wanted a super soldier that much. There is very little chance of the experiments on Bruce happening at all if they had a steady source of super soldier children, and Hydra wouldn’t have kept using Bucky, who was so unpredictable and rebellious, if they could raise a super soldier from a child to be loyal to them. So either, super soldiers are infertile no matter what, or it isn’t possible genetically to create super soldier children. 

It’s entirely possible that super soldiers would be infertile, their bodies and genetics are so completely changed, and so different from what they were, that it wouldn’t be possible for them to have children at all, or maybe being a super soldier would mess up a developing embryo so much that it would never survive at all.

The second option however, is much more interesting. There are three ways it could go, either being a super soldier is impossible to pass down, the characteristics of being one are recessive, or they are dominant. If the traits were dominant, that means that, as long as one parent passed down the gene (or genes) for being a super soldier, then the child would be a super soldier. If the traits were recessive, then they would need a super gene from both parents for them to become a super soldier. 

If being a super soldier is impossible to pass down genetically, then those theoretical women would have normal children, possibly with the genetics of the father from before the serum. I believe this is unlikely though, because the serum changed every one of their cells, so why would it not change their sex cells? Maybe the serum just doesn’t activate until something, (trauma, stress, or possibly radiation) triggers it, which would be another possibility, though also unlikely, as with that possibility, there would also be super soldiers around that we would know of.

If the characteristics of being a super soldier are recessive, then we still have much of the same problem, that of more super soldiers existing for us to know of. Of course, there would only be super soldier children if those children’s genetics were combined, so this makes it a bit more likely, but not a lot. 

If the characteristics of being a super soldier is dominant however, then every child that has a super soldier parent would be a super soldier, which makes it impossibly unlikely, for the same reasons as the others. The thing is, if the embryo and fetus was a super soldier, that might cause a myriad of effects on the person carrying them. For one, super soldiers need at least four times the amount of food as anyone else, likely more. That in itself could likely keep a super soldier baby from developing properly, as wombs are built for the needs of human babies, not the needs of super soldier babies. Then, there’s always the possibility that humans and super soldiers are simply genetically incompatible, like animals of different species are. Animals are incompatible genetically for many reason, from simply having their reproductive system work differently, from different arrangements of genes. Super soldiers are so dramatically different from humans, at least in the ways their bodies work, if not their looks, that the possibility seems likely. They have super metabolism and healing, super speed and strength, super senses and endurance. It’s even possible that super soldiers would have a different gut microbiome, (combination of bacteria in the gut) which is inherited from our mothers, and thus the normal human, something that would likely help them with being so resistant to disease. That would at the very least (if a super soldier’s microbiome is dramatically different from a human’s) make that super soldier less resistant to sickness than a normal one, even though the super genes are dominant. It’s also possible that super soldiers produce drastically different amounts of hormones than normal humans do, or even have quirks in reproduction that would make regular humans incompatible with super soldiers. 

If that was the case, then only two super soldiers could create a super soldier, and probably only if a super soldier with a womb was involved, as a normal woman likely wouldn’t be able to carry the baby, for all the reasons listed above. I believe it would be possible though, that if there was a super soldier with a womb, that they could carry the child of a normal human. I believe this because mules, which are usually completely sterile due to being genetically incompatible with any animal, can in very rare occasions, have foals, and as far as I know, they have to be the one to carry it. It’s very rare, with only sixty reported cases, and two substantiated cases, but possible. It would likely only happen to a super soldier with a womb because the trait would be dominant, and the child would likely need a super soldiers nutrition to survive. 

Of course, it’s very likely that the writers of the serum just didn’t consider the possibility of making a super soldier child, and/or ignored the idea, but I feel like this is a logical explanation, considering all the information we do have on the serum and genetics in general. I hope this helps you in writing anything involving children of super soldiers!


End file.
